Album review: Satanic Overdrive gives us cheeky garage rock on debut album
Satanic Overdrive is a tongue-in-cheek punky rock’n’roll band from Gothenburg, Sweden. Its debut album is full of Swedish garage rock.
The references to Satan are seemingly there purely for shock value, to get attention for the emerging band Satanic Overdrive. Fair enough – it is hard for new bands to get noticed. Music-wise, this Swedish band is a mix of straightforward garage rock and shout-along punk rock. There is nothing evil or even sinister about this rock band. They call themselves “an occult punk rock’n’roll band” but even that is a load of tosh. They are not occult at all. They are attention seekers, but they are also gifted songwriters. There is a quality there that perhaps gets overshadowed by the references to Satan. I dig their good-fun and high-energy debut album. They’d be better off ditching the Satan references and just be a great and fun melodic punk rock/garage rock band in a proud Swedish tradition. Songs like “Cold Honey”, “Suck It Up”, “Zombie Shakedown”, “Pain Makes You Live” and “Burn” are terrific. It’s the sort of music you want to drink beer to at a summer rock festival. There is very good potential here. In addition to echoes of the Swedish punk rock scene, there are heaps of hints of classic Swedish garage rock bands like The Hives, The Leather Nun and The Nomads.
Satanic Overdrive’s self-titled debut album will be released on 2nd October via Lucifer Productions.
